Apparatus for reducing crude petroleum.



Patented Aug. Ii, 1918.

l/VI/E/I/TOR CHAV/VCETBE'WARD A TTOR/I/Ey C. B. FORWARD.

APPARATUS FOR REDUCING CRUDE PETROLEUM.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT 25, IJIG.

between separators.

l L UFMQE.

CHAUNCEY' B. ronwann, or UBBANA, omo.

APPARATUS FOR REDUCING CRUDE PETROLEUM.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 6, 1918.

Application filed September 25, 1916. Serial No. 121,933.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHAUXCEY B. Fon- WARD, citizen of the United States, residing at Urbana, in the county of Champaign and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in an Apparatus for Reducing Crude Petroleum, of which the following is a specification.

This invention ertains to an apparatus for reducing cru e petroleum and its residuums to a light volatile oil suitable for use in internal combustion engines or for any other purpose for which such oil can be used, and the invention consists in an apparatus embodying the means shown and described in my Letters Patent of the United States bearing No. 1,202,823, of October 31, 1916.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a longitudinal elevation of the complete apparatus, partially sectioned or broken away here and there, and Fig. 2 is an enlarged sectional detail of portions of two separators and the means operatively connecting the same. Fig. 3 is a sectional elevation of a modification of the connections As thus shown in both my former application, and in the present one, and especially in the form of the inventi0n seen in Figs. 1 and 2, the numeral 2 represents a suitable steam boiler having a steam delivery pipe 3 which leads to a steam superheater coil 4 arranged, in this instance, within the boiler casing and from which superheated steam is delivered. under high pressures through a main pi e 5 and a series of branch pipes 5 which harge into the atomizer 6, lo-

I cated respectively at the front ends of the several successive separators 7, 8 and 9.

It will be understood that while I prefer to use steam-in connection with this apparatus, I might employ air with suitable means for heating and delivering thesame at the desired working temperatures and.

pressures through said pipes 5 and 5 and the injectors shown. At present, however, I employ steam, and the oil is taken from a supply tank 11 and forced by the pump 12 under the requisite pressure into the firstor primary separator chamber through the pipe 13 which is connected with the atomizer 6 of said separator, and a steam heater 14 of jacket form is connected with the superheated steam supply for the system and surrounds a portion of the said 011 delivery pipe 13 to heatthe oil to a correspondingly high temperature before it passes to the atomizer. This also helps to maintain the required temperature in separator 7, as without the preheating of the oil the temperature would be materially reduced therein.

In my experience with the original'apparatus referred to above, and incorporated herein, I found that notwithstanding the unusually large pcrcentage of light commercial oil yielded by the apparatus as a whole, there was still a valuable percentage of such oil to be obtained from the residuum which it was profit-able to save. Hence the present invention involves the original apparatus and certain improvements thereon which have to do especially with the residual products of the process. For example, in the said original apparatus there was an appreciable lowering of the pressure from separator to separator, but it has been found preferable to increase the pressure as well as the temperature in each succeeding separator in order to more successfully break up the combination of molecules in the residuum and so that it will yield an additional per centage of the volatile oil. Therefore I conceived the idea of suitable steam injecting mechanism in that connection, whereby the residuum is effectually broken up in each transit from separator to separator and the separating conditions are materially improved.

To these ends, I employ a series of separators 7, 8 and 9, or two or more adapted each to receive the residuum from the one next preceding by a suitable pipe connection 15 opening practically into the bottom of the preceding separator and discharging into a steam in ector a, of any approved pattern as shown in Fig. 2, and a volume of superheated steam 1s conveyed to said injector by a pipe 6 directly from the steam pipe 5 above under suitable valve control. Dis charge from the injector is by pipe extension 6' into atomizer 6. A check valve 0 prevents possible backflow through the pipe I) to the injector, and thereis also a check valve of in the steam pipe 5 next beneath the control valved to prevent back flow from the separator.

As the ressure in the superheated steam supply is ept above that maintained in the separators I am enabled by these means to deliver the residuum flowing from one separator to another with such increase of temperature and pressure as compa with the possibilitiesof the delivering separator that the breaking up of the combination of molecules in the reslduum is materially enhanced and the aggregate volume of volatile oil increased accordingly. The increased temper ature in each successive separator is obtained by an increased volume of superheated steam to each in turn through the means just described.

It will be noticed, too, that plished at no added cost to the system after the apparatus has been installed, and there is no additional labor, or other expense, and the operation is automatic and self-contained from first to last.

Each separator in the series has a separate vapor discharge connection 16 at its top and a clarifier 17 next to said connection dis I the condenser 20. Separate receptacles 21 and 22 may be used to receive the volatile oil from condenser 20 and theresidual discharge from the pipe 23 of the last separator 9, and

a common blow-ofi ipe connection 24 is also provided for all 0 the separators, so that one or more may be operated or cleaned out at will. The severalsteam and oil pipes and connections are provided with suitable valves wherever needed tocontrol or-shut 0d the flow of steam and oil for and during operations.- i

In p the p the crude oil is forced by pump 12' into the first or primary sepr 7 together with sueated the Oil also pre -1 I M y rm" a M! initially by heater 14. The superheated i u is die livered under sumcient p to ato the oil actually as it entersthe separator, and such introduction of the atomized oil ps continuously while the temperature in separator 7 is maintainw at about 400 degrees F. or higher by the steam supply. The a in each separator is regulated by the pregulating valve 18 above the clarifier 17, which opens only to permit the vapor to escape when a predetermined ressure is exceeded and because the outow of the residue through pipe 15 to the nextgso arator is restricted and controlled byav ve15'.

Obviously, vapor presure established and maintained in the primary separator 7 through pipe 4' from the -su heater d occasions prwure in the va or xharge by channel 16, the sepor 1 and the vapor carrying pipe 19 and also to the residuum discharge through pipe 15, and this premure contributes toorce the residuum mto the next succeeding separator and on to the next% but with lowering pressures spccessivelv i no aum'liary pres ure be employed. Pipb 5' this is accom- 'erably'ar given chamber are more or less w? 1 1| I 5 contributes a a or less proportion to the pressure and heat, but tly improved results are obtained by the use of an injector V p with the said part 24. The said injector pipe 25 extends some co into the larger end of pipe 26 and is designedto facilitate the atomization of the residuum and to increase temperature and presuresubstantially as occurs in Fig. 2, with injector 11. Pipe 26 has an atomizer 27 at its ty in the.

end of the separator, and a. hand controlled valve 28 therein serves to govern inflow and a check valve 29 prevents back pressure the next septor.

Obviously, pete and even prcsi sure and M chambers would be imble if there were not suitable in to control the outlets therefrom, and such control is preferably by valves which are set by hand as the conditions require.

, The separating chambers h are refa tandem, as shown, wi the w residual products, in a given fio r" w'hv m: MAI- 11x11; them to the end of the next chamber and -where the oil or residuum is atomized openly into the y of the chamber in the p i of the uniformly maintained p e- I-" there inch, more or'iess. Hence, the in of artificial or "a A m 'cal have sutially the same separating 00D:

ditions in all the and since both heat and pressure which come over from a m a 1:: t the difiemnce can be more than made up by super steam forced in through pipes shown and described.

Attention is called in this connection to my w ding application, Ser. No. @397, filed t ay 24, 1915, in which a claim a 21 for an apptus with afchamber' a' outlet pa for the vapors and the resid uum respectively, means'to atomize the dil into the open interior of said chamber against a mam'mum p therein of at least sixty pounds to the square inch, and

3a in the separating hich may be seventy-five to I pres chambers g individual we I means in said passages adapted to maintain said pressure and to prevent the esca e of vapor through the passage for the resi uum. What I claim is:

5 An apparatus as described, comprising a series of separator chambers, means to force oil and superheated steam together into the firstof said chambers and to maintain a predetermined vapor pressure therein, a passage .10 for vapor from the top of each chamber and a passage for the residuum from the bottom thereof arranged to discharge into the next succeeding chamber. means to add superheated vapor to said residuum in said passage and an atomizer for the residuum at the discharge end of said passage.

Signed at Cleveland. '11 the county of Cuyahoga. and State of Ohio, this 7th day of September, 1916.

CHAUNCEY B. FOIUVARD. 

